Removal of shells of multi-wall carbon nanotubes by repeatedly scanning bias voltage

摘要

Carbon nanotubes can either be metallic or semiconducting, depending on their chirality. IBM converted multi-wall nanotubes into either a metallic or a semicon-ducting conductor by selectively removing the shells of the MWNTs. This was realized by applying a constant voltage to the tubes in air. Here we report a new method to remove the shells of a single MWNT just by repeatedly scanning the bias voltage in vacuum. Both the direct contact of the outmost shell with the electrodes and the high anisotropy of thermal conductivity help to remove the shells one by one.